Chicken breeding question

[sara1226]

I am still new at having chickens, and forgive me because this question might be really a dumb one. I feel we have a nice little mix of breeds in our flock of seven. 2 silkies, 1 Rhode Island Red, 1 gold star, and 3 old English game mixes. None of them Are related except the 3 OE's and of those 3 one is my only rooster.

I would like to some day hatch out the eggs, to see what the chicks would look like (I'm not in this for show birds, so I don't care if they are mixed breeds). My question is..what happens if I hatch out eggs that came from the 3 who are related? Will chickens breed if they are from the same parents? Would I end up with Franken-birds? Lol

Maybe I shouldn't bother to hatch those eggs, and just try to hatch the eggs that would be from my OE mix + RIR, OE + gold star, etc.


Any thoughts or suggestions...

 

[junebuggena]

There will be no problems inbreeding related birds, at least for the first few generations. Problems would only occur if you exclusively bred birds from those 3 after several generations.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I am still new at having chickens, and forgive me because this question might be really a dumb one. I feel we have a nice little mix of breeds in our flock of seven. 2 silkies, 1 Rhode Island Red, 1 gold star, and 3 old English game mixes. None of them Are related except the 3 OE's and of those 3 one is my only rooster.

I would like to some day hatch out the eggs, to see what the chicks would look like (I'm not in this for show birds, so I don't care if they are mixed breeds). My question is..what happens if I hatch out eggs that came from the 3 who are related? Will chickens breed if they are from the same parents? Would I end up with Franken-birds? Lol

Maybe I shouldn't bother to hatch those eggs, and just try to hatch the eggs that would be from my OE mix + RIR, OE + gold star, etc.


Any thoughts or suggestions...

No, they won't look like frankenbirds lol Many people line breed (breed the off spring back to the parents/grandparents) to improve the qualities they are looking for. You can get away with line breeding for more generations than plain inbreeding. Breeding brother to sister isn't as favorable or as recommended as a practice. My understanding is it won't hurt to start your flock that way, but you don't want to continue it that way.
I love my mixes. I actually prefer mixes to many of the pure breeds. It is so much fun seeing what they will look like.

 

[Bine]

It's true, you can breed your birds w/o problems for sometime, but be prepaired for the little roosters.... b/c in very 2. egg sits a little roo and that means you have to rehome or eat the roosters. Even if your rooster - talking about a miracle - are all go alonge fine, too many roosters overbreed and stress the hens.
Problem with the chicks is, that often the sweetest chicks, the ones that sit on your lap and follow you around, turn out to be roosters. ... and if you have small kids drama and tears are preprogrammed for the day the roosters have to go to camp freezer.
So think about what you want to do with the boys before they hatch.

 

[kuchchicks]

I am so glad someone asked this question! I have a few birds that I want to breed but was afraid of inbreeding. I wasn't sure how often to mix up the blood lines. This is great info to have!!!!